The Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) approved this Wednesday, December 8, a resolution that demands the Ortega Murillo regime, urgently, the release of all political prisoners and the acceptance of a high-level mission to reach an agreement, given that “Nicaragua is not fulfilling the commitments assumed in the Inter-American Democratic Charter.”
The high-level good offices mission authorized by the Permanent Council of the OAS must seek such an agreement so that the repression ceases, there is a dialogue between different political actors and new presidential and parliamentary elections, according to the document entitled “Results of the deliberations of the Permanent Council on November 29, 2021 on the situation in Nicaragua ”, the full content of which was published on the organization’s Twitter account.
The resolution was approved with the vote of a majority of 25 countries in favor. Eight countries abstained and one voted against (that of the Daniel Ortega regime).
The 25 governments that voted in favor of the resolution bring together most of the countries of Central America, North America, South America and the Caribbean. Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, Canada, the United States, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, Ecuador, Guyana, and Suriname. Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Venezuela, Bahamas, Barbados, Haiti, Antigua and Barbuda, Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada and Dominica.
The Permanent Council of the #OEA approved with 25 votes in favor, 1 against, and 8 abstentions the resolution “Results of the deliberations of the Permanent Council of November 29, 2021 on the situation in Nicaragua”
ℹ️https://t.co/HkNNg1QT8I pic.twitter.com/2b5AJ0hnVR– OEA (@OEA_oficial) December 8, 2021
The new resolution gives continuity to the collective assessment carried out on November 29 and the complaint of illegitimacy of the votes that allowed the irregular reelection of Ortega and his wife and Vice President Rosario Murillo, which have been carried out without any democratic guarantee and without competition. electoral campaign, which was eliminated with the imprisonment of opposition candidates in the repressive escalation that began since last May.
“Nicaragua is not fulfilling the commitments assumed in the Inter-American Democratic Charter,” says the OAS resolution that was proposed by the permanent missions of Canada, Antigua and Barbuda, Chile, Colombia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador, the United States, and Guyana. .
This Wednesday’s vote was similar to the previous one, with Peru voting in favor again, while Argentina abstained this time and took a step back from its most recent vote.
The countries that abstained this Wednesday were: Belize, Bolivia, Honduras, Mexico, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
Urgent meeting to communicate decision
The OAS instructed Secretary General Luis Almagro to urgently request a meeting with the Government of Nicaragua in order to transmit this decision. The objective of the conversations with Ortega would be: “to carry out comprehensive electoral reforms, in accordance with what was requested in previous OAS resolutions and in accordance with Nicaragua’s obligations under international law,” the document says.
Almagro must report on said efforts to the Permanent Council no later than Friday, December 17.
The declaration also adds that the process should lead to “the repeal of all laws that restrict political participation and limit human rights in a way that is contrary to Nicaragua’s international human rights obligations, and a dialogue between all parties. politicians and other actors in Nicaragua with the objective of holding early presidential and parliamentary elections that are free, impartial and transparent, with credible international observation ”.
They also demanded the return of international human rights organizations, expelled by the regime in 2018, after they denounced the commission of crimes against humanity at the hands of the police authorities and vigilante groups linked to the Nicaraguan dictatorship.
“To call on the Government of Nicaragua to allow the immediate return of international human rights bodies, such as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights,” the document added.
The representative of the United States in the OAS, Bradley freden, supported in his statement to the Nicaraguan people, while regretting the attempt of the Ortega regime to withdraw from the Organization, which will be effective for two years and does not exempt it from fulfilling its international commitments to respect human rights and the democracy. “We cannot abandon a country in the fight for its ideals,” he said.
In their Twitter account, the Canadian delegates in the multilateral organization insisted that they will continue working, through dialogue, for the reestablishment of democracy in Nicaragua, while Peru spoke about the results of the collective decision in the OAS before Nicaragua’s failure to comply with the commitments assumed in the Inter-American Democratic Charter.
The Nicaraguan official reacted, once again, against the OAS and described it as an instrument of “North American imperialism”, but did not mention a single word about the human rights violations that caused the death of 355 people, 2,000 injured and that more than 100,000 people went into exile since 2018.
“We accuse the OAS, which does not have the moral authority to accuse anyone, because they are, with the United States, in Sandino’s words,” the den where crimes, outrages and outrages are fabricated “against all human, political, and economic rights. climatic, social, and against the freedoms that our peoples demand and demand ”, accused the Nicaraguan executive in a statement.
Until now, the main defense of the dictatorship has been to signal interventionism to the international community, while describing itself as the victim of a coup in 2018. Meanwhile, it approaches Russia seeking international support in the face of its increasing isolation by the international breaches regarding respect for human rights and democracy.
